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A friend of mine asked me to give him my impressions of post-Olympic Van[couver], wondering if this event had left some permanent marks (or scars) down here.

 

I came out of the airplane about an hour ago, and in the taxi that brought me from the airport to the hotel, I felt like I already had an idea on my answer to that. I've never seen such a concentration of Canadian flags in a small perimeter, hanging on restaurant, shops and apartments' windows.

 

I wonder, will Vancouver's population wake up one day like the population of the City of Grasse in the film The perfume? For those who haven't read the so-named book (by German writer Patrick Süskind) or film, this community has a massive orgy, for a reason that I will not mention in order to leave some surprise so that you can read or watch it one day. When they wake up and come back to consciousness, they quickly get dressed and go back to their routine, as if nothing had happened, probably wondering what brought them into such collective craziness. I can easily imagine that in the decades that followed, nobody ever mentioned this episode of their community life, letting it disappear from the common memories.

 

But let's get back to Vancouver, will people come back to their routine one day and discreetly take their flags down and hide them in the bottom of their drawers as if they never had been hanging out there, ostentatious? Or will they definitely adopt the US-kind of patriotism, and keep these flags up until they are torn by the next tsunami? The Olympics have finished a week ago, and I can assure you that the flags are still here, hanging all around. But the official decorations of the event are still around too, so I would say let's wait a few weeks to verify whether Van will come back to its polite, light-version Canadian patriotism or if the Olympics have definitely changed one of the Canadian society's characteristics.

 

Terence, a friend from Vancouver did witness patriotism during the games, but noticed that it all happened with a positive attitude. During the last hockey match for example, he said the Olympics staff was asked to stay nice with the Americans, even if Canada was winning. Yes, Canadians in their big majority are definitely nice people, they just can't help it, and that's what we love about them.

 

Let's check patriotism's definition: Wordreference defines it as inspired by love for your country. I'm not sure us Yukoners can blame what happened down in Vancouver those past weeks: aren't we the first ones to say how magnificent is our land, and how warm are our people, isn't that a certain kind of patriotism? If yes, than I can definitely say that I am part of it, apart from the flags. Overall I think Canadians always have been patriotic, but they're just less loud than their neighbors.

Catégories : Let's speak English
Au bord du lac
Montréal at night
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